Outline a Speculative Story in Five Easy Steps

Believe it or not, you can write 10+ short stories within a year. Or even more than that. The simple trick is to first outline each story in a way that prepares you best to write it. You’re not going to have a full fleshed-out story to begin with, but carefully outlining means you save yourself a lot of time and energy.

For this post, I know I said speculative stories, but this applies to all stories! When you begin outlining, complete these five simple and quick steps, then start writing with ease.

1) Establish the Main Idea

A story begins with an idea. It could be big or small, but you need to flesh it out in your outline before diving into the story and hoping it comes together. It might be something as simple as “colonists journey to Mars and meet little gray aliens” or something. It’s up to you. But write it down so you don’t stray from your goal. Then ask yourself:

1. How do I make this story unique from other stories I’ve read?

2. How can I place my voice into this story? (This means having the story express the opinions, beliefs, and themes that you want – find out what those are!)

3. What is the purpose of this story? (Why do you want to write it? What’s the big idea you’re going for? Get preachy with it in the outline!)

When you ask yourself these questions, write the answers down as you see fit. Once you have the main idea, you need to establish the character that helps bring that idea to life.

2) Establish the Main Character

Your story needs a character first and foremost. Even if you have a great idea, nothing can happen without a character to interact with that idea. With this in mind, here are some tips for outlining your main character for your story:

1. First, ask what their motivation is. What is their primary reason for being part of the story, their main drive, ambition, and goal? It can be big or small. Your character’s goal may be to make it to an appointment on time or travel across the world to destroy a magic ring. You decide.

2. Second, ask what their personality is like. How will they respond to the situation and approach the obstacles you set up for them? Do they usually get angry, feel cheerful or optimistic, or feel plagued by depression?

3. Last, what do they look like? Now that you have the important details, write down what they look like!

Next comes the conflict that your character faces.

3) Establish the Main Conflict that the Character Has

After setting up your character, you need to give them conflict, something that they can fight against. Your story also needs a conflict in general; otherwise, you don’t really have a story. When you outline the story’s main issue, answer the following questions:

1. What does my character want, and how can I prevent them from getting it? The conflict here becomes the obstacles that your character needs to overcome to accomplish their goal.

2. What kind of conflict does my character have, as in, is it internal or external? By internal, I mean the character struggles within themselves. By external, I mean something outside their control that opposes them. For example, in Lewis Padgett’s sci-fi short story “Mimsy Were the Borogroves,” two parents face the external conflict of losing their children to strange technology, while facing the internal conflict of confronting their own fears.

As a side note, I also highly recommend reading this story. Find the full story here!

Need more help with your short story? Check out these tips for writing a sci-fi story.

Next up, you need to create the plot.

4) Fully Flesh Out the Plot

So you have a character and a conflict. Now you need to fully outline the plot. For speculative short stories, you’ll likely use a classic five-part structure.

I walked through this in one of my previous articles, so I’m going to put it down here.

1. The inciting incident (where the main conflict kicks off the events of your plot)

2. The first try/fail cycle (where the main character experiences their first obstacle)

3. The second try/fail cycle (where the main character experiences the next obstacle. Often, epic fantasies might include more cycles, but it’s up to you)

4. The climax (where the conflict comes to a head and the main character faces their toughest obstacle yet)

5. Falling action (when the story builds toward resolution

6. Resolution (when all loose ends are tied up)

Want to read that article? This was in my previous post, 3 Reasons Fantasy Is Hard (and How to Succeed).

At this point, you have the three major factors that make up a short story, but you’re not quite done. In addition to the rest of the plot, you need to nail the ending.

5) Craft a Memorable Ending

Lastly, you need to create a memorable ending when you’re outlining. Most of the time, writers will outline the rest of their story, then neglect to craft an ending that’s intriguing, complex, or satisfying. When outlining your ending (the final step in the process!), make sure you write down the following:

1. Tie up loose ends. Make sure you outline an ending that takes the elements you introduced and gives them a conclusion. If you introduce a character, give them an ending. If you include something cool like a laser cannon, make sure it serves its purpose by the time you reach the end.

2. Don’t give the characters everything they ask for. Often, complex endings don’t involve characters getting everything they want. Sometimes, they lose everything. They might win the big conflict, but they lose something else in the long run. Going for this approach adds more nuance to your ending and makes it memorable.

Now you have a complete outline for a story with a beginning, middle, and end! Now it’s time to get to work. Happy writing!

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